If the Kings win the Stanley Cup on Saturday, and nobody’s watching, it still counts.

For reals?

Consider that, along with our most insincerest congratulations to NBC for achieving its business goals at the expense of the Los Angeles TV market.

We are, after all, the world’s most entertainment-focused company town, more than happy to help create new jobs, new advertising venues. And new headaches.

Enough people apparently found the NBC Sports Witness Protection Program Network on Wednesday night, wanting an opportunity to watch the Kings possibly clinch their first Stanley Cup Final in Game 4, to make it the most-watched channel in Los Angeles for the night.

Really, what was it up against? “America’s Got Shingles”?

There are plenty more people who lack an understanding why the league would not have strongly advised the network to simply make this epic event easier for both casual and hard-core Kings fans to locate by moving it to its KNBC-Channel 4 affiliate.

Tim Conway Jr., the longtime L.A. radio talk-show host, wasn’t joking while on KFI-AM (640) Wednesday night when he exclaimed during a remote show from LA Live: “I’m 50 feet from Staples Center and I can’t watch this game on Channel 4, but some guy in Finland is watching it live.”

Tweeted Kings fan Steven Knapp: “Its down right pathetic that I cannot watch my @LAKings play for the #stanleycup on tv in my home and I live in @losangeles.”

NBC, as is stands, can’t really win either way. It’s already in a position to have this register as one of the lowest-rated Stanley Cup Final series since the Anaheim Ducks contaminated the ice water with itstheir 2007 championship run over the legendary Ottawa Senators.

Despite L.A. botoxing the NBC Sports Network with a 6.64 local rating Wednesday, Game 4’s overnight Nielsen national number was 1.4, a drop of 13 percent from Game 4 of last year’s Boston-Vancouver encounter. Consider TNT’s coverage of the Oklahoma City-San Antonio NBA Western Conference clinching Game 6 had a 7.1 overnight, and L.A. helped that with a 1.7.

Game 3 of the Kings-Devils, also on NBCSN, had a 4.9 rating in L.A., the most-watched channel from 5-7:45 p.m. that day. But nationally, the game had 37 percent fewer viewers than last year.

Games 1 and 2 on NBC’s national, accessible network, played in New Jersey, had a meager 1.8 and 2.2 national rating – surprising since both went into overtime, yet also had national competition from NBA playoff games.

Bottom line: This NBCSN two-game average of 1.03 million viewers is the best numbers since ESPN had the NHL Final in 2002.

(Yes, that same ESPN that didn’t report a Game 4 score on its 6 a.m. “SportsCenter” Thursday morning until about 35 minutes into the telecast, or about 15-20 headlines in, according to Daily Variety.)

It’s almost useless to seek a fan-friendly explanation with anyone at NBC as to why Games 3 and 4 were shipped off to NBCSN.

The company, now owned by Comcast, can rationalize that the NBC Sports Network is available to 80 million homes and will be an important component in the upcoming Summer Olympics from London.

Most of the essential programming, of course, will go to NBC’s main channel. Almost all delayed.

And all live, exclusive events on NBC Sports Network – once called the Outdoor Life Network, then Versus – are supposed to drive viewers to find it. Mission accomplished. And hostage crisis over. The rest of the series, continuing with Saturday’s Game 5, goes to NBC.

Find a friend who already has been angling for more Babe Winkleman angling tips, cycling crashes, poker chipping and any other ancillary NBC-lite sports-branded shows if you’re still searching for this thing.

Having the L.A. locals part of the process in seeking it out, perhaps finding it, occasionally watching it, sorta remembering to DVR it – we’re supposed to help make it an “it” channel.

Shhhhhh. “It” isn’t worth it.

NBC voices give kudos to Miller, Fox

Two hours before the puck dropped for Wednesday’s Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final, Doc Emrick’s voice reverberated through an otherwise-empty Staples Center.

Talk about someone who didn’t need a microphone.

NBC’s lead hockey voice practiced reading the script for the opening of the telecast. Bob Miller could hear him loud and clear as well.

The Kings’ Hall of Fame broadcaster was able to peer down to see Emrick warming up in the same broadcast booth that he and Jim Fox have worked in since the building opened 12 years ago.

Yet, at the moment, Miller was wedging himself into the game operations booth high above the west end so the Kings could have him and Fox “call” Game 4, piped into the arena for fans on the concourse and recorded for posterity’s sake if the franchise clinched its first Stanley Cup.

That was Take One. Take Two comes Saturday.

Emrick, the 2008 Hockey Hall of Famer and voice of the New Jersey Devils for 12 seasons until 2011, understands any Kings fans frustrations as to why he and Ed Olczyk appear to have usurped Miller and Fox for the needs of the national broadcast.

“I like Bob a lot – I kid him that he was the voice of the Ducks before the Ducks even existed,” said Emrick, referring to Miller as the play-by-play man for Disney’s “Mighty Ducks” movie in 1992 a year before it created the NHL team of the same name.

“There’s one team I’m allowed to be a fan of – the Pittsburgh Pirates, because I grew up listening to Bob Prince. He made me a Pirates fan. I certainly understand the affection people have for Bob, as well as Nick Nickson (on radio). We all go way back together.

“This is a sport that attracts passionate people. Fans see with their hearts and not always with their ears and eyes, and that’s OK.”

Olczyk, whose 16-year NHL career included 67 games with the Kings in the 1996-97 season, gave a shout-out to Miller, Fox and Nickson during the Game 3 telecast, aware of what they’ve meant to the sport’s growth in L.A.

“It’s not just the players or coaches who’ve done it over the years, but the voices that have sold the organization,” said Olczyk, still a part of the Blackhawks’ TV team and Miller’s partner on NHL Radio playoff games in the late 1990 s. “They’re an important part of building the game. All of them can take pride in the team being so close to the title.”

WHAT SMOKES

==NBC’s Tom Hammond said that he and producer Rob Hyland were in Eugene, Ore., last weekend for coverage of the Prefontane Classic track meet and, “I can’t tell you how many complete strangers came up to ask, ‘Are we going to have a Triple Crown?’ It captures the imagination of everyone that has even a slight interest in the world of sports.” Santa Anita Derby winner I’ll Have Another draws the attention at the Belmont (Saturday, Ch.4, 1:30-4 p.m.), with Bob Costas promising to keep trainer Doug O’Neill in his sights during a scheduled pre-race and possible post-race interview to gauge how he’s handling things in light of his suspension by the California Horse Racing Board. Costas had O’Neill on his NBC Sports Network “Costas Tonight” show that debuted Monday as well.

==Come again with this new Matthew Perry series that NBC keeps promoting during the Stanley Cup Final: It’s called “Go On.” Or “Goon?” The later seems more apropos for the puck crowd.

WHAT CHOKES

==Vin Scully has his own Twitter account? Not really. It’s a bit of identity theft having the @VinScullyTweet home, even if it calls itself a “tribute” home, sending out lines that the Dodgers’ Hall of Fame broadcaster might say during a broadcast, as well as retweeting comments from others. It already has more than 1,000 followers – or about 50,000 fewer than what former Dodgers manager @TommyLasorda feeds to his account via constant Dodgers-appointed press coordinator and Lasorda assistant Colin Gunderson (basically a feed for any new TV series pilot could be called “Sh*t My Former Dodger Manager Says”).